Trial applications for workbench engineered distributed systems

Dettagli del progetto

Costo totale:

Contributo UE:

Coordinato in:

Argomento (i):

Meccanismo di finanziamento:

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Obiettivo

The trial application project belongs to the distributed systems and database technology domains. It is the intention of the partners to demonstrate competitive solutions for each of their market segments, including integrated solutions that cross application borders. This will be achieved by using the following new technology incorporated into a workbench environment (offered by Sysdeco as QBE Vision) to prototype some parts of their existing applications:

The project will result in application prototypes - a travel application, a business administrative application, and a medical application - as well as an improved toolset. The technical objectives are:

- to use object oriented technology to build an application which adapts easily to different set-ups, including connectivity to other applications, without complicated and time consuming modifications.- to have a distributed application that supports multimedia data types with reusable user interface- to have interoperability between PC's with Windows and UNIX computers, using a toolset interfaced to middleware like Orbix-OLE from the Irish company Iona Technologies.

The business objectives for the partners are to continue strong growth in revenue and results, and to maintain their position as market leaders. The partners estimate that the new technology will be a critical factor for selling software and services worth several hundred million ECUs during the years 1997 to 2000.

The team members have participated in related European research projects, such as ALGOSET, ASSET, MADE, ESF, SPECS and STARS. Leading research institutes are involved to assure successful transfer of the new technology to the partners.

The consortium will be prototyping future features of existing applications and testing the prototypes at pilot customer sites. This will ensure the technology is tested in a "real life" environment.

In addition to the following main deliverables, other results from the project will emerge when the technology is implemented in the products of the partners and other vendors:

- a course on the new technology;- three application prototypes based on the new technology;- an improved toolset prototype which supports the new technology- a seminar presenting the experiences gained from the project;- a report describing the experiences gained from the project, including recommendations on whether to implement the technology in products.

The target group for the new leading edge technology is the European software industry, in particular distributed system developers using relational databases that are selling products in several countries. The software industry will benefit, since the technology will be made generally available by incorporation into one of the toolsets supplied by a project partner.